Policy Update
Sruti Halder
Background
The India International Bullion Exchange (IIBX) is India’s first regulated gateway for the import and trading of gold and silver, operationalised at Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City), Gandhinagar. Its conceptual origin lies in the Union Budget 2020-21, in which Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the government’s intent to establish an international bullion exchange in an International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) (Ministry of Finance, 2020).
This was followed by the creation of the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) on 27 April 2020 as the unified regulator for all financial products, services, and institutions within India’s IFSCs (IFSCA, 2020). IIBX was incorporated in 2021, and its operating guidelines were issued by IFSCA on 25 August 2021, formally initiating the exchange’s institutional groundwork.
The rationale behind IIBX was rooted in a long-standing structural gap in India’s bullion economy. India is the world’s second-largest consumer of gold, importing roughly 700–900 tonnes annually, yet it had no domestic price-discovery mechanism of its own; prices were largely benchmarked to the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) (PIB, 2022). Imports were also restricted to a small set of RBI- and DGFT-nominated banks and agencies, creating concentration, limited transparency, and higher intermediation costs for jewellers. IIBX was designed to correct this by allowing “Qualified Jewellers” (QJs) to import bullion directly, improve price transparency, ensure standardisation and quality assurance of traded bullion, and position India as an influencer of global bullion prices rather than a passive price-taker (PIB, 2022).
IIBX was formally inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 29 July 2022, alongside the foundation stone of the IFSCA headquarters and the launch of the NSE IFSC-SGX Connect (PIB, 2022). The exchange is promoted by India’s principal market infrastructure institutions: NSE, India INX (a BSE subsidiary), NSDL, CDSL, and MCX, with the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, as the ultimate owner (IIBX, 2025). The exchange initially traded gold in standardised lot sizes (100g and 1kg contracts of 999 and 995 purity respectively) and later expanded into silver trading, with silver contracts launched on 13 December 2023.
Target beneficiaries include Qualified Jewellers with a net worth of ₹25 crore or more and at least 95 percent of turnover from jewellery-related business, Qualified Suppliers, nominated banks, bullion trading and clearing members, and since 2024, Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ) holders importing gold under the India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). This eligibility framework has since been progressively relaxed. IFSCA’s circular of 29 April 2025 dispensed with the minimum net-worth requirement for all classes of “Customers” transacting on IIBX, while retaining it for Qualified Jewellers and Qualified Suppliers at that stage (IFSCA, 2025).
Subsequent amendments broadened access further: entities holding a valid Registration-cum-Membership Certificate from the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council became eligible to apply as Qualified Jewellers, the net-worth requirement was removed altogether for SEZ units engaged in jewellery exports, and Advance Authorisation holders under DGFT were made eligible to seek Qualified Jeweller status (IFSCA, 2025; IFSCA, 2026). These successive relaxations reflect a deliberate widening of the participant base beyond the initial high-net-worth threshold, aimed at drawing in smaller exporters and SEZ-based units that were excluded under the original 2022 criteria.
Key regulatory milestones since inception include the RBI’s May 2022 norms permitting Qualified Jewellers to remit advance payments for gold imports through IIBX (RBI, 2022); the IFSCA (Bullion Exchange) Regulations, 2023, notified on 10 May 2023; relaxed TRQ eligibility norms in April 2023; and an April 2024 IFSCA circular allowing RBI-authorised Indian banks to directly access the IIBX trading system without a Bullion Trading Member intermediary (IFSCA, 2024).
Functioning
IIBX operates as a fully electronic, T+0 (cash-and-carry) exchange, meaning transactions are settled with full value and physical delivery on the same trading day. Trading is limited to spot contracts in gold and silver, backed by Bullion Depository Receipts (BDRs), which represent ownership of vaulted physical metal. The exchange has established three IFSCA-approved vaults at GIFT City, with a combined reported storage capacity of approximately 446 tonnes of gold and 2,580 tonnes of silver.
This GIFT City vaulting base has since been expanded through additional SEZ facilities outside Gujarat, most notably at Chennai. IIBX first enabled a Chennai vault at the J. Matadee Free Trade Warehousing Zone, operated by Brinks India Private Limited, and subsequently empanelled a second Chennai facility at the Madras Export Processing Zone SEZ, operated by Sequel Logistics Private Limited, effective 19 August 2025 (IIBX, 2025).
With this addition, Chennai now operates two vaults under a common “Chennai Contracts” category on the IIBX trading terminal, allowing Qualified Suppliers to deliver gold and silver, including Gold Mini 999 and Silver Bar (LBMA) contracts, into either Chennai vault in addition to the GIFT City facilities (IIBX, 2025). This multi-location vaulting model is intended to reduce logistical distance for jewellery manufacturers based outside Gujarat and lay the groundwork for further SEZ-based vault expansion across the country.
The institutional framework rests on a four-tier structure. First, IFSCA functions as the apex regulator, issuing operating guidelines, notifying regulations, and approving Qualified Jewellers, Suppliers, and Trading Members. Second, IIBX itself operates the trading platform and reports transaction-level data to IFSCA on a monthly basis. Third, a Clearing Corporation handles settlement and margining. Fourth, participation occurs through Trading Members, Clearing Members, or directly by “Special Category Clients”: a route opened to banks in April 2024. Entities can participate as a Client of a Trading Member or as a Qualified Jeweller-Special Category Client (QJ-SCC) with direct market access, clearing through a designated Clearing Member (IIBX, 2025).
Funding for participation is transactional rather than budgetary: IIBX charges nominal application-processing and annual membership fees (ranging from ₹500 to ₹10,000 depending on membership category), alongside IFSCA registration fees, rather than relying on government budgetary outlay. As IIBX is a market infrastructure institution promoted by exchanges rather than a subsidy scheme, it does not appear as a distinct budget head in the Union Budget; instead, its enabling ecosystem, GIFT-IFSC infrastructure and IFSCA’s regulatory capacity, receives support through the Ministry of Finance’s Department of Economic Affairs.
On implementation status, participation has grown steadily. As per IFSCA’s quarterly bulletins, the number of Qualified Jewellers rose from 118 (March 2024) to 153 (December 2024), and further to around 171 by FY 2024-25 (Table 38, Participants on India International Bullion Exchange, IFSCA Bulletin, Jan–Mar 2025), alongside 25 Qualified Suppliers and 441 TRQ-qualified jewellers (IFSCA, 2024). Valid India-UAE CEPA TRQ holders on the platform doubled from 82 to 164 between March and June 2024 alone (IFSCA, 2024).
A persistent implementation concern, flagged repeatedly by the Ministry of Finance in review meetings through 2025, has been the slow pace of actual bank participation: while several public and private banks have secured in-principle approvals, the transition from onboarding to live trading has lagged, prompting successive high-level reviews by the Finance Minister in June and November 2025 to accelerate bank-led trading and foreign bank participation.
Performance
IIBX’s trading performance shows a sharp acceleration after a slow start, though volumes remain modest relative to India’s overall bullion trade.
| Financial Year | Gold Contracts Traded (Kg) | Cumulative Gold Volume (Kg) | Silver Trading |
| FY 2022-23 | 411 | 411 | Not yet launched |
| FY 2023-24 | 7,928.2 | 8,339.2 | Launched Dec 2023 |
| FY 2024-25 | 93,072.5 | 101,414.8 | 1,147 tonnes cumulative (to Mar 2025) |
Source: IIBX Annual Report FY 2024-25 (IIBX, 2025)
Within FY 2024-25, quarterly gold trading data shows consistent growth: 9,768 kg in Q1, rising to 25,429.3 kg in Q2, 25,876.2 kg in Q3, and 31,999 kg in Q4 (IIBX, 2025). Government-accessed data further indicates that of total TRQ gold imports in FY 2024-25, 93 tonnes about 72 percent of the TRQ market share, flowed through IIBX. Forex flows attributable to IIBX-routed gold trade reportedly touched $8.45 billion in FY 2024-25, with projections of over $12 billion for FY 2025-26.
| Metric | FY 2024-25 (Actual) | FY 2025-26 (Projected) |
| Gold contracts traded | 101.4 tonnes (cumulative) | 120 tonnes (annual) |
| Gold-linked forex flow | $8.45 billion | Over $12 billion |
| Silver contracts traded (cumulative) | 1,147 tonnes | Not disclosed |
| Silver-linked forex flow | $0.92 billion | Not disclosed |
| Addressable gold import market identified | — | 200 tonnes |
Source:IIBX, Annual Report FY 2024-25
However, this must be contextualised against India’s total annual gold demand of 700–850 tonnes and import value that touched ₹4,897.5 billion (~$52 billion) in FY 2025 (DGCI, 2025; World Gold Council, 2025). IIBX-routed volumes, even at their FY 2024-25 peak of roughly 93 tonnes, therefore account for a modest single-digit-to-low-double-digit share of national gold imports by volume, though its share of CEPA/TRQ-route imports specifically is substantially higher at 72 percent. The CEPA TRQ quota itself has scaled from 120 tonnes (FY 2022-23) to 140 tonnes (FY 2023-24) to 160 tonnes (FY 2024-25) and 180 tonnes for FY 2025-26, moving toward a contractual ceiling of 200 tonnes annually.
Benchmarked against comparable exchanges, the scale gap remains wide. The Shanghai Gold Exchange, the world’s largest physical bullion bourse, traded 7,648.9 tonnes of gold unilaterally in Q1 2024 alone, up 32.29 percent year-on-year. Borsa İstanbul’s Precious Metals Market, operating since 1995, recorded around 1,423.8 tonnes of gold trading volume in 2023. Against this, IIBX’s cumulative gold volume of roughly 101.4 tonnes by end-FY 2024-25, achieved within just three years, remains modest in absolute terms, even as its growth rate outpaces both older exchanges.
Impact
Assessed against its stated objectives, IIBX shows partial but genuine progress. On price discovery and standardisation, the exchange has established a domestic mechanism for bullion trading with quality-assured contracts, though India’s gold price benchmark remains substantially influenced by international LBMA rates rather than IIBX quotes, indicating the “price-maker” ambition remains largely unrealised. On direct import access, the impact is more concrete: Qualified Jewellers can now bypass traditional bank intermediaries entirely, and the extension of direct exchange access to RBI-authorised banks in April 2024 has begun altering import channel structures (IFSCA, 2024). On CEPA-linked trade facilitation, IIBX has become the primary conduit for UAE-origin TRQ gold, capturing a majority share of that route.
On formalisation and transparency, the shift toward exchange-based, monitored, and vaulted transactions replacing more opaque bilateral import arrangements, represents a meaningful institutional gain, aligning with the government’s broader push to curb under-invoicing and misuse of trade concessions, as seen in the May 2025 tightening of CEPA import rules restricting gold/silver imports to authorised agencies, Qualified Jewellers, and valid TRQ holders. Independent commentary from the Observer Research Foundation notes that IIBX’s global positioning as the world’s third bullion exchange after Shanghai and Istanbul, gives India a genuine, if nascent, platform to influence regional bullion flows, contingent on scaling volumes and international participation.
Emerging Issues
- Low absolute trading volumes relative to national demand: Even peak annual volumes (~93–101 tonnes cumulative) remain a fraction of India’s 700–850 tonne annual gold demand, limiting the exchange’s price-discovery influence.
- Slow transition from bank onboarding to live trading: Multiple Ministry of Finance-led reviews (June 2025, November 2025) indicate that banks approved in principle have been slow to commence actual trading operations on IIBX.
- Limited foreign/international participation: The exchange’s stated goal of becoming a regional bullion hub requires foreign bank and international client participation, which remains at an early stage.
- Regulatory and quota bottlenecks in CEPA TRQ allocation: The October 2025 shift to competitive online bidding for the TRQ quota drew nearly 2,960 applications for a 180-tonne allocation, resulting in roughly 1,400 rejections and industry concerns over consistency of eligibility criteria.
- Concentration risk in participation base: Growth in Qualified Jewellers (118 to over 170) and TRQ holders has been rapid, but actual trading remains concentrated among a smaller set of active participants and select banks.
- Underdeveloped product suite: Proposed products such as gold metal loans, lease products, and repo instruments remain at a conceptual or early-rollout stage, limiting the exchange’s depth compared to mature bullion exchanges like Shanghai Gold Exchange.
- Coordination across multiple regulators: Effective functioning requires continuous alignment between IFSCA, RBI, DGFT, the Department of Revenue, and Customs, a multi-agency coordination challenge evident in the frequency of high-level review meetings needed to unblock implementation issues.
Way Forward
- Mandate a higher share of CEPA and bulk gold imports through IIBX, as reportedly under consideration by the Ministry of Finance, to structurally increase exchange volumes rather than relying on voluntary participation.
- Accelerate bank go-live timelines by streamlining RBI/Board approval processes for International Banking Units and nominated banks already granted in-principle IIBX access.
- Expand vaulting and logistics infrastructure beyond GIFT City to additional SEZs, reducing logistical friction for jewellers based outside Gujarat.
- Broaden the product suite to include gold metal loans, leasing, and repo instruments on a firm timeline, deepening the exchange’s utility beyond spot import substitution.
- Strengthen transparency in TRQ allocation by refining the competitive bidding framework introduced in late 2025 to reduce rejection rates and improve predictability for genuine jewellery manufacturers.
- Pursue international bank and client onboarding actively, potentially through bilateral arrangements with UAE and other bullion-trading jurisdictions, to build the “regional hub” ambition into real cross-border liquidity.
- Institutionalise periodic public reporting of IIBX performance metrics (volumes, participant numbers, forex flows) through IFSCA’s regular bulletins to enable independent monitoring and course correction.
- Align IIBX growth with domestic gold monetisation and formalisation goals, integrating it more closely with schemes to reduce informal, non-transparent bullion trade channels.
References
IIBX. (2025). Annual Report FY 2024-25. India International Bullion Exchange IFSC Ltd. https://www.iibx.co.in/
IFSCA. (2024). IFSCA Bulletin, April–June 2024. International Financial Services Centres Authority. https://ifsca.gov.in/Document/ReportandPublication/ifsca-bulletin-apr-jun-202416082024013355.pdf
IFSCA. (2024). IFSCA Bulletin, October–December 2024. International Financial Services Centres Authority. https://ifsca.gov.in/Document/ReportandPublication/ifsca-bulletin-oct-dec-202418022025104650.pdf
International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA). (2025). Circular No. IFSCA-DMC/3/2023 – Removal of net worth requirement for Customers on IIBX, dated 29 April 2025. https://www.taxmann.com/post/blog/ifsca-removes-net-worth-requirement-for-all-customers-on-india-international-bullion-exchange
International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA). (2026). Circular – Enabling SEZ units and Advance Authorisation holders to import gold or silver through IIBX, dated 2 January 2026. https://epces.in/uploads/highlight/Enabling%20SEZ%20units%20and%20Advance%20Authorisation%20holders%20to%20import%20gold%20or%20silver%20through%20IIBX202601051767602746.pdf
Reserve Bank of India (RBI). (2022). RBI issues norms for gold import by qualified jewellers through IIBX. https://www.business-standard.com/amp/article/markets/rbi-issues-norms-for-gold-import-by-qualified-jewellers-through-iibx-122052501388_1.html
Press Information Bureau (PIB). (2022). PM lays foundation stone of IFSCA headquarters at GIFT City in Gandhinagar; PM also launches India’s first International Bullion Exchange – IIBX. Government of India. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1846285
Borsa İstanbul. (2023). Precious Metals Market gold trading data, 2023. https://www.borsaistanbul.com/files/2023-yilina-ait-piyasa-verileri.pdf
Statista. (2025). Value of gold imported into India from financial year 2011 to 2025. https://www.statista.com/statistics/625818/import-value-of-gold-india/
Observer Research Foundation (ORF). (2024). IIBX: A game-changer for the gold market? https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/iibx-a-game-changer-for-the-gold-market
World Gold Council. (2025). India gold market update: Gold outpaces other asset classes. https://www.gold.org/goldhub/gold-focus/2025/01/india-gold-market-update-gold-outpaces-other-asset-classes
Angel One. (2025). Govt curbs gold imports, closes loophole in Dubai route under CEPA. https://www.angelone.in/news/market-updates/govt-curbs-gold-imports-closes-loophole-in-dubai-route-under-cepa
Business Standard. (2024). Govt notifies 160 tons of gold import from UAE at concessional rate. https://www.business-standard.com/industry/news/govt-notifies-160-tons-of-gold-import-from-uae-at-concessional-rate-124082700941_1.html
Business Standard. (2025). IIBX eyes over $12 bn forex flow in FY26 from gold and silver contracts. https://www.business-standard.com/markets/news/iibx-eyes-over-12-bn-forex-flow-in-fy26-from-gold-and-silver-contracts-125110701351_1.html
Business Standard. (2025). FinMin calls meet to spur gold and silver transactions through IIBX. https://www.business-standard.com/industry/news/govt-to-review-bullion-trading-progress-at-iibx-on-november-4-focus-125102400960_1.html
MarketMinute. (2025). India’s Gold Gambit: Competitive Bidding for UAE Pact Quota Set to Transform Bullion Market. https://markets.financialcontent.com/stocks/article/marketminute-2025-10-29-indias-gold-gambit-competitive-bidding-for-uae-pact-quota-set-to-transform-bullion-market
About the Contributor
Sruti Halder is pursuing an MSc in Economics at the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics. She is committed to leveraging data-driven research and evidence-based policymaking to promote inclusive and sustainable socio-economic development.
Acknowledgment
I am writing to express my sincere gratitude to IMPRI (Impact and Policy Research Institute) for providing me with the opportunity to prepare this policy update article and for fostering a rigorous learning environment that connects research with public policy practice.
Reviewers: Tanisha, Arjya Shree Pande
Disclaimer
All views expressed in the article belong solely to the author and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of the organisation.
